Valencia, Spain

Under the tank of the Yamaha YZR-M1 (Petronas) Peter Bom: A dummy fuel tank on the Yamaha R1 as used by the mechanics to start and warm up the bike in pit lane. The real fuel tank is constantly measured for weight (= amount of fuel) to calculate fuel consumption. It was with a fuel tank like this that things went horribly wrong at the Suzuki pit box in Sepang. Fuel leaked out from a leaking hose and the bike caught fire.

It's been a difficult test at Valencia. The weather simply hasn't played ball. Tuesday started wet, took a few hours to dry out, then rain started falling around 3pm, meaning the riders effectively had around two and a half usable hours on track. Rain on Tuesday evening meant the track was wet on Wednesday morning, and in the chill of a November morning, it took a couple of hours before the track dried out enough for the riders to hit the track.

At least it stayed dry and sunny throughout the day, and the last couple of hours saw the best conditions of the test, times dropping until falling temperatures put paid to any thought of improvement. The teams may have lost time, but at least they had a solid four and a half hours of track time to work.

For half the factories, what they were focusing on was engines. Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki all brought new engines to test, and in the case of Yamaha and Honda, two different specs. Ducati was mainly working with a new chassis, aimed at making the bike turn better. Aprilia had a new engine and a new frame to try. And as usual, KTM had a mountain of parts and ideas to test.

With the sun out, the warmest part of the day, and the track in the best condition it has been throughout the test, the riders are now chasing quick times. Andrea Dovizioso is currently fastest, a tenth faster than Marc Marquez, who has been spending time on a second prototype. Danilo Petrucci is third fastest, ahead of the factory Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales.

It was another late start at Valencia, as rain yesterday afternoon and evening meant the track took a long time to dry, testing only getting underway in earnest around 12:30pm. The track has been busy since then, the teams and factories making up for time lost to the rain on Tuesday.